Chapter 23
“Something’s wrong” the same thought crossed both Jason and Caroline’s minds, as they quickly turned their backpacks forward and tried to find the incense and folded paper sigils, they found that their backpacks were almost empty, and neither the incense or the paper sigils were in there.
“Shit!” Caroline looked at Jason nervously, and saw that Jason was also looking at her with the same expression.
“Fucking limbo.” Jason tried to grab something else out of his backpack, he found something but it did not feel like what he was trying to find at all.
It was a long stick, roughly as long as his arm, made of some unrecognizable material, and at one end it shaped like a tip of a pen.
“What the fuck is that? And what the fuck is this?” Caroline was getting irritated, and she found two things from her backpack: a small round shield, and a short stick shaped like a shorter but thicker baton.
“Hey, guys, do your phones have signals?” Branston came over and asked, “Looks like ours just lost signals at the same time. Weird huh?”
“Shut up Branston.” Caroline and Jason yelled at the same time.
“Woah, what the fuck man?” Branston was startled and upset by this outburst.
“We’re in danger now.” Jason held his long pen looking thing in one hand and threw his phone to Branston, “So shut up for now, until we find a way out.”
“In danger? What are you talking about?” Brian asked.
“Jason, the doors are losing color.” Caroline interrupted Jason, who was just about to answer Brian.
Jason took a quick look around the doors in the hallway, indeed, and not just doors, the colors on everything in sight were fading away at a very noticeable speed. And at the same time, the lights in the hallway started dimming as well.
“Dude, what is happening?” even the oblivious Branston and Brian started noticing the weirdness.
“Oh, no, are we being haunted?” Adam started panicking and was not able to stand straight, “Holy shit! We are being haunted! This is the illusion! We’re gonna die!”
“Hey, shut up!” Caroline gave Adam a light slap, “We don’t know this is the end yet, stay focused, okay?”
“Wait, wait, wait, slow down. Why are we in danger?” Brian watched Adam slid into a corner and asked in shock: “Can you tell us what’s happening?”
“We’re in the fucking limbo. ” Jason tried stabbing the hallway window frame with his “pen”, but it just left some ink-like mark on the window frame as if he just painted it with a stroke of a brush, “Adam’s right, we are in an illusion, but it’s an illusion we can possibly die in.”
“Dude, this is sick!” Branston exclaimed excitedly, “We are experiencing a haunting first hand!”
“Yeah, too bad your cameras can’t record here. Dumbass.” Caroline did not hold back on her sarcasm this time, “Now calm down while we figure things out.”
“And what makes you experts, huh? What the fuck do you think you are? ” Brian was upset by Caroline’s sudden change of attitude.
“Hehehehehehe...” an eerie laughter came out of the blue from the direction they were heading towards. Branston and Brian immediately jumped and tried to hide behind Jason and Caroline, while Adam just shriveled to a cradle position on the ground.
“Alright, what now? ” Caroline had to get equipped with her shield that can barely cover her face and her baton-like stick.
“Watch out. ” Jason held onto his pen-like stick, and still tried to lift Adam, “There must be a way out of this limbo.”
“What are you guys holding in your hands? Are those weapons?” Branston’s voice was shaking, “Do you have any more to spare?”
“No, and I am not sure these are weapons either.” Caroline answered impatiently while looking at their surroundings.
“Hey, Adam, get up! We gotta go!” Jason used both of his hands to pick up Adam forcefully, the tip of his pen-like stick dropped and bounced on the ground, leaving a few more marks on the ground.
Sensing something coming from behind, Caroline turned around and took a quick step forward with the shield held in front of her. Her sudden move almost knocked Branston and Brian on their butts.
An ear-piercing sound similar to that of claws on a metal board exploded on impact - a ghastly looking woman with half her face swollen and broken had her bloodied and almost skinless right hand blocked by Caroline’s shield.
Not hesitating for even a moment, Caroline’s short baton connected with this ghastly woman’s already dislocated left shoulder.
Branston and Brian’s eyes could have popped out of their eye sockets if they widened their eyes any harder: with a brittle sound of bones breaking and moving out of their original position, the ghastly woman’s whole body was sent flying by the baton hit and slammed into the wall on her left side
At the same time, Jason also engaged with his ghostly opponents: an overweight looking man in suit, with bruises around his neck and bulging eyes, and a tall woman wearing a bloodied nightgown and shards of glasses in her neck appeared from the shadows and tried to attack Jason and Adam, but Jason was able to push them back with his fast reflexes and his “pen”.
A couple of “ink spots” were left on the man with bruises on his neck and the woman with bloodied nightgown due to them being hit and poked by Jason’s “pen”. And after they were pushed back, those spots started to smoke.
Like attempting to put out fire, Jason’s opponents let out muffled screams and tried to back into the shadows, which gave Jason a window of opportunity to forcefully drag up Adam and pull him to the space between Jason and Caroline.
Seeing that Adam was whimpering like a hurt little kid and not able to pull himself together, and the “ink” spots were able to burn the ghostly opponents, Jason lightly poked Adam’s forehead with his “pen”, leaving a spot there.
“Come on Adam! We need you here! Get up! Get up and stand with us!” Jason stepped in front of Adam and started drawing on the ground and the wall with his “pen”.